European Shares Make Cautious Gains

European stocks were seeing modest gains on Friday, with earnings, macroeconomic data and rising bond yields in focus.

The pan European Stoxx 600 inched up 0.2 percent to 413.41 but was on track to snap a two-week winning streak on concerns about a rise in inflation.

The German DAX and France’s CAC 40 index rose about half a percent each, while the U.K.’s FTSE 100 was up 0.1 percent.

Swiss Re Group was little changed as it posted a Group net loss of $878 million for fiscal year 2020.

NatWest Group rose over 1 percent in London after confirming that it will withdraw from the Republic of Ireland.

Daily Mail And General surged 5.3 percent after announcing the sale of its education technology business.

Segro advanced 1.6 percent as it reported a 62 percent rise in 2020 pretax profit on the back of increased property valuations.

Danone SA shares climbed 3.6 percent. The food company reported that its net income – group share for fiscal year 2020 rose to 1.96 billion euros from 1.93 billion euros in the prior year.

Luxury goods company Hermes surged nearly 6 percent as revenue returned to growth in the second half of the year.

Automaker Renault SA fell as much as 4.2 percent after it posted a record annual loss of 8 billion euros ($9.68 billion).

Utility RWE AG lost 2.6 percent. The company said that the extreme weather conditions in Texas/USA lead to outages of RWE’s wind turbines and high electricity prices.

Insurance and asset management company Allianz SE advanced 1.4 percent. After reporting a marginal drop in fourth-quarter net income, the company said it is in a good position to deliver on its 2021 ambition.

In economic releases, the flash reading of the IHS Markit eurozone composite purchasing managers index rose to a two-month high of 48.1 in February from 47.8 in January.

In the U.K. the flash composite PMI rose to 49.8 from 41.2 in January.

U.K. retail sales volume decreased 8.2 percent month-on-month in January as tighter nationwide coronavirus restrictions affected demand, the Office for National Statistics said.

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